TAMPA, Fla. – Less than a week after a deadly crash into a bar killed four people and injured thirteen others, the city of Tampa is discussing ways to make Ybor City safer for pedestrians and businesses. 

What we know:

 After Saturday morning’s deadly crash, Tampa City Councilors knew something had to be done. 

“I think everything needs to be on the table,” District 3 councilwoman Lynn Hurtak mentioned. 

Related: Community pushes for pedestrian safety changes after deadly Ybor City crash

They said the community is coming to them for solutions, so they went over some of the ideas that have been floating around. 

Possible Solutions:

They discussed bollards, which is a heavy, durable post used for security and traffic control. The goal would be to protect property and pedestrians from vehicles. They use them in London. 

District 4 councilman Bill Carlson said, “The Westminster Bridge, which is left to Big Ben and in a historic area, they had an incident where a truck drove through a crowd on the bridge, hurt and killed a bunch of people.”

In March 2017, a driver drove into pedestrians along the Westminster Bridge.

The city added them after the tragedy and made them look historic, which matched the feel of the city. Something that could also happen in Ybor City. 

Bollards aren’t a new idea for the city, either. 

“You may have seen them downtown on the sidewalks,” District 2 councilman Guido Maniscalco explained. “You can’t drive a car on the Riverwalk.”

Another idea that came up, shutting down 7th Avenue to cars altogether. 

“The community is telling us they want to talk about shutting down 7th Avenue,” Hurtak explained. “I’m not going one way or another, I am just saying the community wants to have a space to talk about it.”

Carlson disagreed, “They reopened the streets in Orlando because it was too dangerous to keep them closed.”

Street Racing Problem:

Another option included blocking off some entrances to 7th Avenue, which would limit street racing. 

Related: Deadly Ybor crash: Suspect accused of killing 4 to remain behind bars until trial

“A person was able to get off of 275 and go straight down 7th,” Carlson added. “Could block off 7th and go around, block off entrances to keep people from racing at high speed.”

Which all agreed is a major problem in the city. 

“Street racing is the beginning of all this,” Carlson said. “Ybor City was unlucky because they get blamed for being a dangerous place.”

What’s next:

The city is calling on Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw to hold community meetings, to listen to neighbors to see what solutions they want. 

We reached out to the police department about this possibility, and we are waiting to hear back.

The Source: FOX 13 gathered this information from the Tampa City Council meeting held on Thursday night, as well as prior reporting on the deadly bar crash.

TampaCrime and Public Safety